Posts Tagged ‘environmentally friendly cars’

The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica could be named the greenest vehicle in America next week.

The list of five finalists for Green Car Journal’s 2017 respected Green Car of the Year award includes the BMW 330e, Chevrolet Bolt, Chrysler Pacifica, Kia Optima and the Toyota Prius Prime.

The winner will be announced next week at the Los Angeles International Auto Show and the nominees reflect the industry’s ongoing shift towards hybrid vehicles and the still tentative embrace of EVs and the ongoing shift in battery technology.

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“This year’s Green Car of the Year finalists clearly represent the momentum that electrification is experiencing in the auto industry,” said Ron Cogan, Editor and Publisher of Green Car Journal and GreenCarJournal.com. (more…)

Ford scored by adding a CNG and propane option for the 2016 version of the F-150.

The Ford F-150 pickup has been named the Green Truck of the Year, while the Ram ProMaster City has been declared the Commercial Green Car of the Year.

You might find it difficult to use the words, “green,” and “pickup truck” in the same sentence, but manufacturers have been striving to make even the biggest vehicles on the road more environmentally friendly, as reflected in a pair of new awards.

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“Over the past few decades, new car models have benefitted from design and technology improvements that have brought higher fuel efficiency and greater levels of environmental compatibility,” said Ron Cogan, publisher of Green Car Journal, which hands out the annual awards. “We’re witnessing the pickup and light commercial vehicle field enjoying the same attention.”

If you’ve been thinking about buying a new battery-electric vehicle in an effort to be kinder to the environment, a new study suggests you might want to think again. According to its authors, EVs might actually worsen global warming.

If you’re charging up your new battery-car using electricity generated from coal, it turns out, you’ll actually create nearly four times as much soot, while increasing the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere – while also increasing smog deaths, according to the new study by the University of Minnesota.

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“It’s kind of hard to beat gasoline,” despite its bad reputation among environmentalists, said study co-author and engineering professor Julian Marshall. “A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean,” he added, “are not better than gasoline.” (more…)

Hyundai is just bringing its Tucson-based hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle to market in Southern California.

While Japanese automakers have long worked hard to burnish their images as environmentally friendly manufacturers, Korean carmaker Hyundai-Kia has been named the greenest carmaker by an influential scientific research group.

The Korean partners displaced Tokyo-based Honda, which had been the top-ranked automaker during the previous five years, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The UCS credited Hyundai’s belated push into hybrids, as well as its new, downsized turbo engines and other pollution control technologies, such as the hydrogen-powered Tucson Fuel Cell Vehicle just going on sale in California.

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Honda slipped to second in the study, followed by Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen. Detroit’s Big three automakers lagged in the study which looked at a variety of variables, including the production of traditional, smog-causing pollutants, as well as CO2 and other gases linked to climate change.

The 2014 Honda Accord was named “Green Car of the Year” during a ceremony at the L.A. Auto Show on Thursday morning, jurors – who include Tonight Show host and car fanatic Jay Leno – hailing the sedan for bringing an assortment of environmentally friendly technologies into the mainstream.

The Accord, which Honda bills as the model with the highest retail sales volume in the U.S., is currently offered with a variety of different powertrain options, notably including a new 50 mpg hybrid and a plug-in hybrid with a 115 MPGe rating.

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The award “says we’re moving in the right direction,” declared Mike Accavitti, American Honda Motors’ marketing chief said as he stood by an Accord Hybrid. Equally important, he said the award will win recognition for Honda’s expanded green car effort which includes an assortment of new gas-electric drive systems such as the two-motor hybrid in the Accord. “This will help us sell more cars.” (more…)

From hybrids to hydrogen vehicles - and possibly with diesel-hybrids, like this Vision Concept - BMW promises to go green, but can the maker hold down costs – and maintain the distinctive ride and performance that justifies its hefty product premium?

BMW has an alternative Vision of the future.

No, the Vision show car making its debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, this month, won’t be rolling into showrooms anytime soon. Its diesel-hybrid powertrain is far too complicated and expensive to produce – for now. But Vision concept underscores the automaker’s increasingly energetic search for cleaner, high-mileage technology that can supplement, potentially even replace, the traditional powertrains that it has long relied on.

But “going green” poses some potentially serious challenges for the company, officials acknowledge. For one thing, while new laws may require – and consumers demand – cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles, the German maker must maintain the distinctive performance and ride that allows it to charge a premium for vehicles ranging from the subcompact 1-Series to its big 7-er sedans.

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There’s also the issue of cost. Despite the traditional premium consumers have paid for the marque’s “spinner” logo, BMW officials question how much more motorists will shell out for “clean” vehicles.